Snapchat CEO Under Fire For Calling India And Spain “Poor Countries”

During a user growth meeting in 2015, former employee Anthony Pompliano reportedly brought up concern for the app’s success overseas and proposed a way to fix the issue. According to Variety, Pompliano was allegedly brushed off by the company’s CEO, Evan Spiegel.

Pompliano claims Spiegel responded, “This app is only for rich people. I don’t want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain.”

Since Variety published the explosive claims, Snap users in India have taken to the App Store and Twitter to show their outrage.

The allegations were originally in a redacted portion of a lawsuit against Snap Inc. filed by Pompliano. The records were unsealed on Monday, last week. The suit alleges Snap had been inflating their daily active users and registration completion rate. Pompliano claims this misled advertisers.

When he realized this was a problem, Pompliano compiled a PowerPoint presentation for Spiegel and other Snap executives. According to Pompliano, Spiegel quickly went through the presentation and said, “Yeah I read those, it doesn’t matter.”

The day after Pompliano’s presentation, he was fired. Snap is now describing Pompliano as a “disgruntled employee fired for poor performance,” but the damage has been done.